A Los Angeles-based nonprofit opened an early childhood center specifically for children whose families are seeking asylum in the United States. This center is one of the only places available where migrant children can play and learn for free.

For those of us who grew up in Southern California, smog alerts were once all too common. The thick, gray air would burn your lungs, schools would keep children inside, some factories temporarily ceased operations, and local newspapers described the air as “strangling” and “agonizing.”

Southern Californians couldn’t breathe, so we decided to do something about it. The state of California and regional air districts set aggressive air quality standards and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals far ahead of the nation as a whole. We placed strong rules on pollution from vehicles, and created a Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) program to expedite the manufacturing of cleaner cars.

At the time, these steps were criticized by the naysayers as too aggressive and costly. In hindsight, they were just common sense and led to great economic growth.

Over the last two decades, Southern California has experienced a dramatic reduction in regional air pollution and a marked improvement in public health. A recent study in the journal of the American Medical Association found that pollutants in Southern California communities have declined by 20 percent, resulting in a 20 percent decline in the rate of new asthma cases in children.

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Despite this good progress, air quality problems persist. The impacts of climate change are resulting in more extreme heat waves and powerful, year-round wildfires that hurt air quality. In many ways, the challenge we face now is more pressing than it has ever been.

Even President Donald Trump’s own Environmental Protection Agency concedes that the transportation sector is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change.

Between 1990 and 2015, greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector increased more in absolute terms than any other sector. Within the transportation sector, light-duty vehicles, including passenger cars and light-duty trucks, account for 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. We see this firsthand in Southern California during our daily grind of freeway traffic.

I support reducing emissions across the transportation sector, but we cannot understate the role that passenger cars will play for the foreseeable future. Many people have no practical transportation alternatives to driving. That’s where the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act of 2019 comes into the picture.

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This bill, which I introduced with Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, builds off of measures that have already been put in place in California and nine others states to gradually transition our country to zero-emission passenger vehicles by 2040. It would set a federal ZEV standard to boost the market for battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and it would apply only to the sale of new cars.

A bold national commitment to cleaner cars will not only help us combat climate change, it will also dramatically improve public health. According to a 2016 report issued by the American Lung Association, transitioning to ZEVs would deliver $33 billion in annual total health and climate savings by 2050. The 90 percent reduction in the pollution that causes smog and soot would translate to 195,000 fewer lost workdays, 96,000 fewer asthma attacks, and 2,200 fewer premature deaths.

This commitment will also help the United States lead the world in developing and manufacturing innovative ZEV technology. Since California first instituted a ZEV requirement in 1990, the overall economy has flourished, cutting-edge companies like Tesla have generated billions of dollars in economic activity for the state, and leading automotive companies across the country like Ford and General Motors have invested billions in developing electric vehicles.

Alternatively, if we fail to act, we will allow other countries to take the lead on developing clean cars. China, India and nations in Europe will reap the economic rewards, and we could find ourselves purchasing foreign vehicles that should have been made right here.

We have heard the naysayers before, who said it was too aggressive and costly for California to take steps to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Now, they don’t want us to take bold steps towards cleaner transportation options. They were wrong then and they’re wrong today.